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Old 05-22-2020, 01:22 PM   #1
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GFI issue

Love our 2005 HR Ambassador but hate how Monaco ran almost all of the electric through the 20 amp GFI in the bathroom. The guy before me said he occasionally struggled keeping in on and now I am.

It was raining hard here and has all week, so it's damp. We were watching some TV today and suddenly the GFI snapped and wouldn't reset. I replaced with 20 amp GFI (what was there before) and still won't reset. Any thoughts on where to start? I know GFI is temperamental so is it possible the dampness is causing it? The AC is running now.

Thanks in advance
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Old 05-22-2020, 02:11 PM   #2
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If you have an outdoor outlet check that for any water inside from the rain. Just moisture in the air shouldn't affect GFI.
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Old 05-22-2020, 02:12 PM   #3
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All the outlets on that circuit are daisy chained in series. Find the next outlet in the circuit and disconnect and then try resetting the GFCI. If successful it isn't the GFCI. Then go to the next outlet etc, continue until you narrow it down to the outlet causing the problem. Could be a bad outlet or connection.
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Old 05-22-2020, 04:35 PM   #4
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did you check the circuit breakers directly on the inverter?
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Old 05-22-2020, 08:15 PM   #5
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Brand of GFI

Some brands of GFI outlets are notoriously finicky in handling the coach's hybrid electrical system. Can't remember the brand of the most reliable one for motor homes. Perhaps someone will chime in.
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Old 05-23-2020, 04:35 AM   #6
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Update: Thanks for the responses and I did check outlets in the basement bays. Turned both A/C on low enough to keep them on to dry the air yesterday afternoon. After about an hour, the GFI didn't immediately trip and after about 3 hours it stayed on and hasn't tripped again. Weird! I was going to do the tedious job of unhooking the Daisy chain one outlet at a time as suggested but now I'm not sure how to do it.

FYI - I have a very nice multimeter and went around to outlets yesterday measuring ohms between outlet AC and ground. Didn't find any shorts in outlets. I'm at the point where I agree that the GFI circuit is just crazy sensitive.

Stumped!
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Old 05-23-2020, 07:44 AM   #7
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When my coach was new we had a lot of problems with the GFCI tripping for apparently no reason. It would also trip the house (stationary house in this case) GFCI if I plugged the coach into a home outlet...I would have to use a non-gfci outlet. Another anomaly was one side of the coach would not power up electrically at some RV parks (turns out they had GFCI's too.

Finally, I dug into the power box in the compartment with the ground power reel. It turned out the factory had mis-wired the power coming into the coach. Something simple but dumb, like reversing the neutral and ground wires from the power chord. If you continue to have issues, it might be worth checking.
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Old 05-24-2020, 05:14 AM   #8
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Originally Posted by Cj D View Post
When my coach was new we had a lot of problems with the GFCI tripping for apparently no reason. It would also trip the house (stationary house in this case) GFCI if I plugged the coach into a home outlet...I would have to use a non-gfci outlet. Another anomaly was one side of the coach would not power up electrically at some RV parks (turns out they had GFCI's too.

Finally, I dug into the power box in the compartment with the ground power reel. It turned out the factory had mis-wired the power coming into the coach. Something simple but dumb, like reversing the neutral and ground wires from the power chord. If you continue to have issues, it might be worth checking.
That's interesting. I'll check that this weekend.
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Old 05-24-2020, 05:16 AM   #9
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When my coach was new we had a lot of problems with the GFCI tripping for apparently no reason. It would also trip the house (stationary house in this case) GFCI if I plugged the coach into a home outlet...I would have to use a non-gfci outlet. Another anomaly was one side of the coach would not power up electrically at some RV parks (turns out they had GFCI's too.

Finally, I dug into the power box in the compartment with the ground power reel. It turned out the factory had mis-wired the power coming into the coach. Something simple but dumb, like reversing the neutral and ground wires from the power chord. If you continue to have issues, it might be worth checking.
Question: Are you saying that the 240 neutral was reversed with the ground wire?
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Old 05-24-2020, 07:06 AM   #10
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Question: Are you saying that the 240 neutral was reversed with the ground wire?
It's been 10 years...but I am pretty sure I remember the bare ground wire and white neutral wires were reversed as they came into the house, but only on one side of the 240v circuit. The ground should not see any load, but on my coach it was carrying at least half the electrical load...one side of the 240 volts. At low loads it didn't make a difference, but at higher loads it would trip the coach gcfi. And, of course, if the coach was plugged into a gcfi circuit, it would sense the difference in load into the colored wire not matching the load out the white wire and trip the shore power.

I'm sure it was just an anomaly with my coach...but if strange things keep popping it's a possibility?!?
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Old 05-24-2020, 10:49 AM   #11
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Another reason (unless it's been covered) for GFCI's not to reset: no electricity going to them. Causes could be tripped breaker or poor connection or other fault anywhere between 120V source into the coach to the GFCI.


This one sounds to me like dampness that dried out. GFCI's are extreme hair-trigger devices. (They read an imbalance in amperage (?) between hot and neutral.) That possibility brings up the chance of water intrusion into the wall of the coach . . . .
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Old 05-25-2020, 04:35 AM   #12
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Another reason (unless it's been covered) for GFCI's not to reset: no electricity going to them. Causes could be tripped breaker or poor connection or other fault anywhere between 120V source into the coach to the GFCI.


This one sounds to me like dampness that dried out. GFCI's are extreme hair-trigger devices. (They read an imbalance in amperage (?) between hot and neutral.) That possibility brings up the chance of water intrusion into the wall of the coach . . . .
The possibility of water in the walls has occurred to me but I can't find it anywhere. Went behind some of the outlets and everything is dry.
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Old 05-25-2020, 06:09 AM   #13
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The possibility of water in the walls has occurred to me but I can't find it anywhere. Went behind some of the outlets and everything is dry.
Good news . . . from a background as a home inspector, I'd say the most likely cause is a failed GFCI, and the easiest first effort to correct the problem would be to replace it -- being very careful to get line and load connections correct.
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